WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:01.360 Hi, church. 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:08.480 The scripture reading for day is Exodus chapter 6, verses 1 through 13. 00:00:09.439 --> 00:00:20.399 But the Lord said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land. 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:25.519 God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:34.320 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. 00:00:35.039 --> 00:00:42.240 I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:51.840 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 00:00:52.960 --> 00:01:08.719 Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from the slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:19.840 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:26.159 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:28.400 I will give it to you for possession. 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:30.000 I am the Lord. 00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:39.040 Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:46.799 So the Lord said to Moses, Go in, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the people of Israel go out of his land. 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:51.359 But Moses said to the Lord, Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. 00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:53.359 How then shall Pharaoh listen to me? 00:01:53.439 --> 00:01:56.000 For I am of uncircumcised lips. 00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:06.239 But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:07.519 This is the word of the Lord. 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:08.800 Please be seated. 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:17.039 Thank you for joining us this morning. 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:18.240 My name is James Rathman. 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:20.639 I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver. 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:25.599 This is an exciting morning because uh right after our service here, we'll have baptisms. 00:02:26.319 --> 00:02:29.680 Yeah, fans of baptisms uh this morning. 00:02:29.759 --> 00:02:31.120 It's great to see you live. 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:36.240 And uh we've got uh uh a bunch of girls that we're baptizing this morning. 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:42.400 Um so this is the this is the the baptism of the girls, uh which I'm looking forward to. 00:02:42.800 --> 00:03:00.879 Um thank you all for uh the effort and labor of making it into church this morning, uh the struggles of getting the kids out of the house, the logistics you negotiated with your spouse, the obedience to your alarm clock on a Sunday morning. 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:03.280 Um these are labors of love. 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:10.240 Um and uh yeah, it is uh it is a joy to gather together with the people of God. 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:14.240 And so uh let's enjoy that this morning. 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:40.800 We're continuing through Exodus in our text today, and we're picking up right where John left off last week as we are looking at the question that Moses had for God after his first trip to Pharaoh that went so poorly, and it resulted in the Israelites being under an even harsher slavery than they were under before Moses had gone to Pharaoh. 00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:48.240 And this raises deep questions in Moses' heart and it crushes the spirit, in a sense, of the Israelite people. 00:03:48.479 --> 00:03:53.439 And so scripture is bringing us into some of the hardest questions of our faith. 00:03:53.599 --> 00:04:05.280 Uh, what does it mean when God seems untrustworthy as he has given us these great promises, and then in the experience of life we see things that's that uh attest directly against them. 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:13.120 And so we're being we're being thrust into some of the deepest uh theological waters we can be thrust into this morning, but the Bible is taking us directly there. 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:15.120 So let's pray before we go. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:30.959 Holy Father, in your great mercy, we pray that we would be humble before you, that we would receive the answers that you give to our questions as even greater than what we had asked. 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:35.920 Lord, we come to you not even quite knowing what to ask. 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:55.360 Uh and you receive the frailty of our questioning, and you meet us, condescend to our position, you know our frame, you consider that we are dust, and you answer us in like manner, that we may know you and trust you and have faith in your promises toward us. 00:04:55.519 --> 00:04:58.240 Father, we lift this up in Jesus' name, amen. 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:11.839 Um after uh the exciting time of ordination last week, uh I immediately got sick because that's what it's like to be a human person after finals week. 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:17.040 Uh so you guys might hear some amplified sniffles this morning. 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:34.319 So when we left off last week, Moses was airing this complaint before the Lord after the deepening of the harshness of Pharaoh's rule over the Israelites. 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:44.399 Moses had gone to Pharaoh and he had said, Let my people go that they might worship for three days in the wilderness. 00:05:44.560 --> 00:06:04.639 And Pharaoh rejected this, and he saw it as evidence of uh uh laziness on behalf of the Israelites, and so he doubled down on their work and he told them that now, in order to make bricks, he would no longer provide the straw, but he would keep their uh quota the same. 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:08.480 Um work in sales for big tech companies. 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:14.959 In these past couple of years, you probably understand that type of not past couple of years, past six months. 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:17.839 You probably understand that that type of reasoning. 00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:31.120 Um Moses is going as he is sent by the Lord to free the people of Israel results in this harsher slavery. 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:38.399 And so Moses turns to the Lord and he asks this question that John showed us last week at the end of his text. 00:06:38.480 --> 00:06:41.439 It's Exodus 5, 22 through 23. 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:48.079 It says, Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? 00:06:48.959 --> 00:06:51.040 Why did you ever send me? 00:06:51.600 --> 00:07:00.639 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all. 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:06.160 You know, that's the right question, isn't it? 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:23.360 When you consider who sent Moses to speak to Pharaoh, it is the Lord himself who sent Moses to speak with Pharaoh on the promise of the deliverance of the Israelites. 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:37.360 If, say, Moses and Aaron had gotten together and they got a wild hare one night and thought, we should try and deliver the Israelites. 00:07:37.600 --> 00:07:38.959 I've got a plan. 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:44.319 Let's go ask Pharaoh for just, we'll just start with a small ask. 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:50.959 We'll just, we'll just ask for three days, and then maybe at the end of that three days, we just don't come back. 00:07:52.319 --> 00:08:00.399 And they were to go and execute this plan, which they had come up with on their own, and they would stand before Pharaoh, and Pharaoh would say, Nope. 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:04.079 In fact, because you asked, this is evidence of their laziness. 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:06.959 I don't know the Lord that you're appealing to. 00:08:07.439 --> 00:08:10.240 I am going to double down on their slavery. 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:18.079 Then Moses and Aaron would have gathered back together around the fire again that night and thought, huh, our plan didn't work. 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:22.399 We had the wrong tactic, we had the wrong approach. 00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:29.920 There was uh we miscalculated the guy that I had on the inside that said Pharaoh has been feeling kind of loose these days. 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:32.240 It turns out it's unreliable. 00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:37.759 And they would have had good reason to just think we we executed this wrongly. 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:42.080 But they were sent by the Lord. 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:46.960 They were given his promise of deliverance. 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:51.679 They were acting in obedience to what God called them to. 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:56.480 And so they are not pushed into a question of their own technique. 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:01.120 They are pushed into the question that is much deeper. 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:05.120 It is the question of the trustworthiness of the Lord. 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:08.080 Lord, why have you done this? 00:09:08.879 --> 00:09:13.279 And this is where we really experience the rub of our faith. 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:16.720 It is not when our own plans go sideways. 00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:26.559 And in those sorts of situations, and we come before the Lord and we we think, okay, I need to repent of this, or I miscalculated, or there's just something I didn't understand. 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:43.440 But when we seem to be, to the best of our understanding, operating within obedience to the Lord, and we see that it is just making things worse, then the trustworthiness of the Lord is in question. 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:51.360 As Christians, we must face this species of question. 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:54.559 Is the Lord reliable? 00:09:56.320 --> 00:10:04.720 How is it that the Lord allows such terror and evil to take place in our lives? 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:10.159 How is it that the Lord tolerates such wickedness in the world? 00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:15.919 This species of question must be addressed by the Christian. 00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:27.440 To some, this species of question is the reason to not believe in the existence of God. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:47.279 When I was a freshman at CU Boulder in logic class, the first day of class, my professor walked up to the board and he wrote an argument on the board that was uh uh if God is the the 3-0 God, which is what the how the philosophers think of God. 00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:57.360 If he is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent, then he cannot coexist with evil. 00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:09.279 Evil does exist, therefore, God, as defined as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent does not exist. 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:15.759 Omnipotent, all-powerful, omniscient, all-knowing, omnibenevolent, all good. 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:20.080 And then it was a logic class, right? 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:26.320 So he walked up to the board and he taught us how to examine an argument and test it for validity. 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:30.799 And he tested the argument and he said, this is valid, this is a valid argument. 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:34.720 And I thought, therefore, God doesn't exist. 00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:41.919 And I thought to myself, as a freshman, people knew just knew that you could just you can just prove this? 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:46.720 Why did nobody tell me before? 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:57.679 You know, there is a peculiar validity to that to that problem, this problem that is being thrust upon us in the scriptures. 00:11:58.559 --> 00:12:04.159 And it is often posed for Christians as a sort of like gotcha. 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:17.039 Like, I know you all have enjoyed that nice long book you have been reading, but why didn't the eagles simply fly Frodo to Mordor? 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:32.879 Why how uh I I know you've all enjoyed these scriptures so much that you've been reading, but have you not seen this glaring plot hole that exists from the very beginning of your text? 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:41.919 The God, as he's described in your book, cannot exist if the problems that that same book describes actually exist. 00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:46.559 And you know that those problems do exist. 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:50.000 And so for many people, this is conclusive. 00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:52.559 The God of the Bible does not exist. 00:12:53.519 --> 00:13:08.000 Now, the reason it's not a gotcha is because the scriptures themselves are constantly wrestling with this problem. 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:16.000 This is not something that scripture it you know hides away in its back pocket like like the like the eagles. 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:40.480 It is not some plot hole that just simply goes overlooked, and we we hope you you look the other way and you know don't consider that you know we you we would have thought Bruce Willis was dead the whole time or Tyler Durden, we never learned Ed Norton's name, things like that. 00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:57.200 Instead, this very question, the Bible repeatedly places in the mouths of its greatest heroes, Moses, before the Lord. 00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:00.639 Why have you done evil to this people? 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:05.120 Can you imagine asking that question of the Lord? 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:08.000 But this is this is the question. 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:09.600 Why? 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:14.000 How can you be these things that you claim to be? 00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:21.039 And then we we see, look, since we've sought your deliverance, things have merely gotten worse. 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:29.440 And so there's this sort of like metaphysical, you know, the 3-0 God of the philosophers that you pray to every night. 00:14:29.679 --> 00:14:30.559 No, you don't. 00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:34.080 We don't think of God in those terms. 00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:48.240 There's this metaphysical element to this question, which can just simply be like a disproof of the existence of God, but the way that we experience this question is about his trustworthiness. 00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:50.399 Are you dependable? 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:51.919 Is he good? 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:54.480 Can I have faith in him? 00:14:54.799 --> 00:14:56.080 Can I believe him? 00:14:56.559 --> 00:15:00.080 Are these promises reliable? 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:04.080 Are they are can I participate in them? 00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:05.840 Are they operable in my life? 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:22.080 If I operate according to the promises of God and lean into the truth in this relationship rather than lean into my own tactics of what I think might maintain the peace, will that be fruitful? 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:23.440 Will that work? 00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:28.480 Or will I be hung out to dry because there is no God? 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:31.279 There is no real hope. 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:35.919 That is where we experience this question in our hearts. 00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:47.919 And so in our text today, it is a wonderful royal decree that the Lord gives to Moses. 00:15:48.799 --> 00:15:59.759 But we have to remember that this royal decree that the Lord gives to Moses is the answer to this question that Moses poses: why have you done evil to this people? 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:17.039 We expect that the answer to the problem of evil will be a solution to our riddles, that there will be some way to solve this syllogism that allows us to say, I know the answer to the problem of evil. 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:30.320 It's simply something like the free will of man, or it's something like the the non-existence of evil itself. 00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:40.159 And we can find some way to kind of back out of this problem to gain some sort of relief of certainty. 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:44.639 But that is not the way the Bible teaches us to answer this problem. 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:54.320 Over and over again throughout the scriptures, we see writers of the Bible approach this problem head on. 00:16:55.120 --> 00:17:11.839 And Paul, for example, in Romans 9, you just feel him setting up this perfect opportunity to say, but God desired that man would be absolutely free, and therefore he allowed evil to take place in the world. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:18.640 And then we would all say, great, and then high five, and we've got an answer to the problem, it's because freedom is this high, the greatest possible value. 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:21.279 And then Paul doesn't say that. 00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:31.519 Paul says, Who are you, O clay, to talk back to your molder? 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:38.319 Now that's a weird answer to this question. 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:46.079 In our Bible reading plan this week, we read through Habakkuk, which is a book of the Bible. 00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:56.000 It's in the Minor Prophets, which is the wilderness of Scripture, where we all get lost and we rarely visit. 00:17:56.880 --> 00:18:01.359 And Habakkuk is a book of a prophet just wrestling with this question. 00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:04.720 He he starts and he's like, Lord, how long are we going to wait? 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:18.079 How is it possible that a God as righteous as you could raise up a terribly unrighteous nation to punish a nation that is not as unrighteous as the nation you're using to do the punishing? 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:26.799 How can we trust your righteousness when we see the imbalance of justice taking place all over the world? 00:18:27.599 --> 00:18:34.240 And then Habakkuk ends, and he the prophet has transformed. 00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:52.799 And he says at the end of that book, though there be no grain in the barns, though there's no cattle in the pastures, though there's no wine in the vats, I will praise you. 00:18:57.440 --> 00:19:13.680 If I were to stand up in my logic class, which I would ne I would never I was a freshman, it was horrifying, he was Scottish, the professor, which immediately is like he's smarter than me. 00:19:14.400 --> 00:19:28.400 And uh but if I had done something as completely absurd as that and stood up and said and said, even if we see this evil evidence in the world that you're describing, I will praise the Lord. 00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:37.680 He would have written it on the board, tested it for validity, and said, no, that doesn't it that doesn't work. 00:19:37.920 --> 00:19:40.160 I almost did a Scottish accent there. 00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:46.240 But I don't I didn't. 00:19:52.079 --> 00:19:53.519 A same. 00:19:58.559 --> 00:20:16.319 So we're going headfirst into this question, but I I want you to understand that uh your expectations for how that will be resolved are not the solving of this riddle. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:27.519 But it is the transformation of your understanding of what it means to be a creature and what it means that God is God. 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:47.200 And then from that transformation of how we understand who we are as his creatures, then the Lord shows us how to live by faith in his promises. 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:52.640 I know that, I know that feels. 00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:01.839 Like the pastor is just saying, I know it doesn't make sense, but you have to have faith. 00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:08.720 I hope that as we work through this, you'll see that it's it's a it's a much richer content than that. 00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:13.279 All right, Exodus 6, 1. 00:21:13.519 --> 00:21:16.960 This is the beginning of the Lord's answer to Moses' question. 00:21:17.039 --> 00:21:18.720 Let me refresh the question in your minds. 00:21:18.880 --> 00:21:22.799 Moses turned to the Lord and said, O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:24.640 Why did you ever send me? 00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:31.680 Since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all. 00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:35.440 Exodus six one. 00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:43.920 But the Lord said to Moses, Now you will see, you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:51.599 For with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land. 00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:54.799 Now you will see. 00:21:56.319 --> 00:21:57.920 Now you shall see. 00:21:58.720 --> 00:21:59.519 And what is it? 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:10.319 That he's telling Moses that he shall see, Pharaoh himself will drive the people of Israel out of his land. 00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:14.720 With a strong hand, he will send them out. 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:18.559 With a strong hand, he will drive them out of his land. 00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:28.480 Moses must be there's a sense in which you would think after hearing that, no, Pharaoh is the one who is holding them. 00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:32.000 It is Pharaoh's hand that is holding the people. 00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:42.000 And then God is saying, He's calling Moses to imagine something that is that is completely outside of the realm of possibility. 00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:49.119 This is out of the Overton window of what Moses would think could be said. 00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:54.640 The one who is enslaving will be the one who drives them out. 00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:58.799 And that's it should be breaking Moses' imagination. 00:22:58.880 --> 00:23:03.839 And I think that's what God is doing here is He's breaking open Moses' imagination. 00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:19.759 And so when we approach this problem, at least, in its simplest terms, what the Bible teaches us to do is at least think I don't know the whole story. 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:29.519 I haven't seen how what has happened will relate to what God has ultimately promised. 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:32.880 I'm assessing this from within the middle. 00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:35.599 And that's the type of creature that you are. 00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:37.440 You're a middle thing. 00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:40.720 You know, you didn't, you aren't from the beginning of the world. 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:43.039 You're from somewhere in the middle of it. 00:23:43.279 --> 00:23:52.880 And when you were born, you were just thrust into this big long story, and then you after a couple of years go by, you find out, oh, things have lots of things have been happening here since even before I showed up. 00:23:53.759 --> 00:24:00.240 And you start to piece those things together, and then you realize I likewise I haven't I haven't seen the end of anything. 00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:09.920 In Ecclesiastes 3, the teacher says, He has made everything beautiful in its time. 00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:21.599 And he has set eternity in the hearts of man, yet so that they cannot tell what God has done from the beginning to the end. 00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:30.000 I think that's one of the best descriptions of humans and of what it's like to be a human. 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:36.480 Because first there's this absurd claim, he's made everything beautiful in its time. 00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:37.839 Everything. 00:24:40.079 --> 00:24:44.559 Then he tells you what it's like to what it's like to be you. 00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:46.880 You have eternity in your heart. 00:24:47.440 --> 00:24:48.799 And so we know that. 00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:55.440 You know, we we understand like the stakes of our lives feel incredibly high. 00:24:57.279 --> 00:25:04.640 We expect that things should be right, and not just that they should be right, but that they should be right forever. 00:25:05.680 --> 00:25:13.920 We have this capacity in our hearts to imagine eternity and even eternal goodness. 00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:27.759 Yet, with this eternity in our hearts, it is in our hearts in such a way that we cannot tell the end from the beginning. 00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:37.200 That from where you are now, what it means to be a person is you live, you live perspectively. 00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:39.440 You have a perspective. 00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:42.880 That perspective is not eternal. 00:25:43.119 --> 00:25:51.599 And yet you know that you must connect with the eternal in order to participate in any real meaning in your life. 00:25:52.160 --> 00:25:59.920 Because if it all just withers away in the end, then what we're doing now we know is meaningless. 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:05.279 But we can't make that connection. 00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:09.920 We can't tell the whole story from the beginning to the end. 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:30.640 If that's what people are like, and the Bible teaches us that that's what people are like, then it is the most sensible to say, you must live by faith. 00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:36.480 Our culture has an addiction to certainty. 00:26:38.559 --> 00:26:48.559 We think that we can establish certainty, and what certainty is, is a desire to believe things without having to take any responsibility for believing them. 00:26:49.599 --> 00:26:51.200 Because they are plain. 00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:57.920 This is why we think that decisions can be made by simply the accumulation of enough data. 00:26:59.039 --> 00:27:11.119 But that's not true, because the data needs to be interpreted, and the interpretation means you're saying something like, I think it means this. 00:27:11.839 --> 00:27:17.359 And then once you say that, you're taking responsibility for what you think. 00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:20.559 You're living by faith. 00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:36.559 If I were to go back to my logic class and say that fundamentally we must be living by faith, that this is the most sensible way that we can possibly live. 00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:40.720 My logic professor would probably not agree. 00:27:43.440 --> 00:27:50.799 He would think that I've that I've uh that I've abandoned the project of being a reasonable person. 00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:53.599 But I haven't. 00:27:54.400 --> 00:27:57.599 I've accepted what it means to be a person. 00:27:59.279 --> 00:28:02.160 What our knowledge is actually like. 00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:13.200 Moses had not yet seen Pharaoh drive the people of Israel out. 00:28:14.640 --> 00:28:21.599 What he had seen is him obey the Lord, go to Pharaoh, and then things got worse. 00:28:21.920 --> 00:28:27.359 Where he is in that story raises this question: why have you done this? 00:28:27.680 --> 00:28:39.119 But God, who has written the whole story, is able to say, now you will see that Pharaoh himself will drive the Israelites from their land. 00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:44.160 So you're given these sort of two. 00:28:45.359 --> 00:28:54.000 What's happening there is Moses is being forced to recognize that he is just this, he's getting a glimpse, a sliver of the story. 00:28:56.559 --> 00:28:59.119 He's not able to see the end from the beginning. 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:07.519 So this at least positions his question in a context. 00:29:07.759 --> 00:29:11.440 Yes, this seems irredeemable to you. 00:29:14.559 --> 00:29:17.279 But you haven't seen the whole story yet. 00:29:18.400 --> 00:29:26.799 So our approach to this question, the way that the Lord causes us to approach this question, is by stoking this self-doubt. 00:29:28.480 --> 00:29:43.119 By prying our certainty away that says, I know how this will play out, because I know enough about Pharaoh, and I know enough about how the Israelites are going to respond to this to say that this is, you've just brought me in to do evil to this people. 00:29:45.599 --> 00:29:47.759 And the Lord says, You don't know. 00:29:48.960 --> 00:29:52.160 It feels like you know, you don't. 00:29:53.039 --> 00:29:55.279 Now you shall see. 00:29:56.480 --> 00:30:07.039 And then the Lord, I should say this, in Exodus, what the Lord is doing is actually reiterating something that he had already told Moses would happen. 00:30:07.279 --> 00:30:18.880 In Exodus 3, 19 through 20, this is earlier, this is at the burning bush, God said to Moses, But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. 00:30:19.119 --> 00:30:23.440 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it. 00:30:23.599 --> 00:30:25.359 After that, he will let you go. 00:30:25.680 --> 00:30:34.160 You know, there's this sense in which Moses could have could have reflected on the story that the Lord had told him would unfold. 00:30:37.759 --> 00:30:45.359 But you know what's really salient to us, what really captures our hearts and imaginations? 00:30:45.440 --> 00:30:54.400 It's the it's it's this problem and the insurmountable nature of the problem that we are facing right now. 00:30:55.519 --> 00:31:05.839 And that question launches onto the Lord to cause us to say, I don't think he's trustworthy. 00:31:09.039 --> 00:31:32.319 So the Lord then, in answer to this question, after breaking open Moses' imagination and then just and then showing him at least you don't know what's to come, once that's been pried open, then there's this like there's this like little little space that's available. 00:31:34.400 --> 00:31:42.640 This space that's available in in Moses to where he can receive the sovereign decree of the Lord. 00:31:43.680 --> 00:32:02.319 Because here's what our transformation as people, in order to be able to receive the Lord's unexpected answer to our question of the problem of evil, is that first he shows us you don't know enough to even be assessing right now. 00:32:03.119 --> 00:32:08.400 So then we're in a space of, okay, it I I guess I don't know, I guess I don't understand. 00:32:09.039 --> 00:32:12.400 Then we need to be given, well, what can I know? 00:32:13.759 --> 00:32:17.839 What is something I could hold on to, lest I despair? 00:32:18.799 --> 00:32:22.720 And so the Lord gives to Moses this sovereign decree. 00:32:25.119 --> 00:32:32.960 And I'm calling it that because it is in the form of an ancient royal decree that a king would send. 00:32:33.119 --> 00:32:40.160 And it's actually in the form of a decree that the gods of Egypt had made. 00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:46.880 Where the Lord introduces himself in this phrase, I am the Lord. 00:32:47.599 --> 00:32:53.200 He gives his promises, and then he says again, I am the Lord. 00:32:53.440 --> 00:33:06.640 The God, uh a commentator that I read describes that the God Atum, in his creation of the world, in uh ancient Egyptian understanding, gives this very form of decree. 00:33:06.880 --> 00:33:11.759 And so the Lord is speaking, but he's also speaking polemically against the gods of Egypt. 00:33:13.200 --> 00:33:15.359 So he begins the sovereign decree in verse two. 00:33:15.680 --> 00:33:19.200 God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. 00:33:20.319 --> 00:33:22.160 All right, here's this new statement. 00:33:22.400 --> 00:33:23.759 I am the Lord. 00:33:25.039 --> 00:33:27.440 This is where we must begin. 00:33:30.240 --> 00:33:35.759 I am the Lord is a revisiting of the name that he had taught Moses. 00:33:36.160 --> 00:33:37.599 I am Yahweh. 00:33:37.839 --> 00:33:39.680 I am the I am. 00:33:42.400 --> 00:33:51.920 When the gods of Egypt introduced themselves in their royal decrees in their creation books, it would say, I am Atom, I am Re. 00:33:55.680 --> 00:33:59.680 Our Lord says, I am, I am. 00:34:01.359 --> 00:34:08.559 This is the the sort of like the maximal version you can imagine of an introduction. 00:34:09.440 --> 00:34:11.599 I am the one who is. 00:34:39.840 --> 00:34:51.119 And so once he has broken Moses' imagination open to where he's no longer gripped on, I know what Pharaoh's like, I know what the Israelites are like, I know that things are only getting worse, and we're not going to be able to get out of here. 00:34:51.360 --> 00:34:55.599 God says, You don't know how this story is going to unfold. 00:34:55.920 --> 00:34:57.440 I am the Lord. 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:05.599 Okay, now we've repositioned in the conversation. 00:35:07.840 --> 00:35:15.199 But that initial answer does not describe whether we can trust him or not. 00:35:19.840 --> 00:35:21.519 So the Lord continues. 00:35:27.519 --> 00:35:28.719 I am the Lord. 00:35:29.039 --> 00:35:38.960 Exodus 6.3, I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord, I did not make myself known to them. 00:35:39.280 --> 00:35:45.199 God Almighty, El Shaddai, he referred to himself as to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 00:35:45.920 --> 00:35:47.599 He is all powerful. 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:51.840 But this is also, it could be understood as he is the God of blessing. 00:35:52.159 --> 00:35:56.800 And this is the promise that he had given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would bless them. 00:35:56.960 --> 00:36:07.119 But the fullness of his name as Yahweh, the I am, the the the absolute. 00:36:08.400 --> 00:36:16.719 We should understand him as an as an absolute, like that that certainty that you so desperately want. 00:36:18.480 --> 00:36:20.079 He is certain. 00:36:23.280 --> 00:36:24.719 He is the I am. 00:36:26.880 --> 00:36:28.960 This name is given to Moses. 00:36:30.079 --> 00:36:38.480 And so we are to understand that this name means he keeps his promises. 00:36:40.400 --> 00:36:53.360 When you hear Yahweh, when you see the Lord translated in all caps in your Bibles, then you should think this is the God who keeps his promises. 00:36:54.800 --> 00:36:57.360 He is the one who keeps his promises. 00:36:58.320 --> 00:37:08.000 I heard a preacher last week at Presbytery, and he was a uh campus minister for RUF, which is Reformed University Fellowship. 00:37:08.159 --> 00:37:13.199 And so obviously there's tons of students asking all the time, what is reformed? 00:37:13.599 --> 00:37:19.199 Why are what why would we say that? 00:37:19.920 --> 00:37:27.840 And he says, reformed theology means God makes and keeps his promises. 00:37:28.719 --> 00:37:30.639 I think that's a great definition. 00:37:31.679 --> 00:37:33.280 What does reformed theology mean? 00:37:33.360 --> 00:37:35.760 It means that God makes and keeps his promises. 00:37:38.880 --> 00:37:42.320 So he is the Lord, Yahweh. 00:37:42.480 --> 00:37:44.880 This is the name Moses can know him by. 00:37:45.920 --> 00:37:47.679 This means he makes and keeps his promises. 00:37:47.920 --> 00:37:49.119 Exodus 6.4. 00:37:49.840 --> 00:37:58.639 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. 00:37:58.800 --> 00:38:01.039 I'm the one who makes and keeps promises. 00:38:01.519 --> 00:38:18.239 I made my covenant, my promises, I made with these men, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their offspring, while they were sojourners in the land, when they didn't possess the land, I promised them that the land of Canaan will be theirs. 00:38:18.559 --> 00:38:20.719 This promise still stands. 00:38:21.280 --> 00:38:32.559 So if you, if they could uh could hold to this promise while they were yet sojourners, can you, while you are slaves, hold to this promise? 00:38:34.239 --> 00:38:36.639 He has established his covenant with them. 00:38:37.599 --> 00:38:48.800 In six verse five, moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel, whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 00:38:49.280 --> 00:38:52.159 Moreover, I have heard the groaning. 00:38:54.400 --> 00:38:59.519 It is almost as if he is saying, You are Moses, I hear your complaint. 00:39:00.320 --> 00:39:02.719 You are not bringing me news. 00:39:04.239 --> 00:39:13.119 I was not unaware of the pain that this is furthering for the Israelites. 00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:17.440 I know their groaning. 00:39:18.480 --> 00:39:20.000 I've heard it. 00:39:23.599 --> 00:39:26.320 I've remembered my covenant. 00:39:29.440 --> 00:39:38.960 The Bible, thankfully, is written anthropocentrically, is a great way to say it, which means for humans to read it. 00:39:39.760 --> 00:39:45.039 Which is great because, you know, we're the only ones that do that. 00:39:48.239 --> 00:39:55.679 And so the Lord is described to us in terms which we can grasp, such as he's remembering. 00:39:56.079 --> 00:40:09.199 But what this means is not like that, oh, this is this it was in the unconscious of God and has now been brought into you know his conscious. 00:40:09.360 --> 00:40:10.000 Yeah. 00:40:10.639 --> 00:40:11.840 There we go. 00:40:13.440 --> 00:40:17.360 It means that the Lord is saying, now I will act. 00:40:18.079 --> 00:40:20.800 Now is the time when I will act. 00:40:21.920 --> 00:40:24.639 Because he remembered his covenant. 00:40:26.239 --> 00:40:32.239 So, with these three things in mind, he is the one who makes and keeps his promises. 00:40:32.559 --> 00:40:39.199 He is entered into his promise, he understands the difficulty he is in, and he will act. 00:40:39.679 --> 00:41:00.320 He tells Moses to say this to the Israelites say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 00:41:02.800 --> 00:41:12.079 So this puts the Israelites in a position where they must live by faith. 00:41:14.400 --> 00:41:16.559 They have a decision here now. 00:41:18.159 --> 00:41:21.280 Am I going to trust my assessment? 00:41:23.039 --> 00:41:33.440 Am I going to trust that I have enough information to determine the cause and effect stream that where because of the amount of data that I have now, I'm able to predict the future? 00:41:33.599 --> 00:41:38.960 And because of my certainty about that prediction of the future, then I know exactly where this is headed. 00:41:39.199 --> 00:41:44.719 Or am I going to say, I don't know where things are headed? 00:41:46.239 --> 00:41:48.159 But the Lord has promised. 00:41:50.079 --> 00:41:53.039 And someone might say, The Lord, I've never heard of him. 00:41:53.280 --> 00:41:54.559 What's he like? 00:41:55.360 --> 00:41:55.920 The Lord. 00:41:56.159 --> 00:41:59.039 He is the eternally existent one. 00:41:59.360 --> 00:42:04.159 He is the one from whom, through whom, and to whom are all things. 00:42:05.199 --> 00:42:08.000 He has made this promise. 00:42:08.559 --> 00:42:11.440 He cannot deny his promises. 00:42:12.639 --> 00:42:15.280 Therefore, he will deliver us. 00:42:16.559 --> 00:42:18.800 But look at the circumstances. 00:42:19.360 --> 00:42:21.599 Could you possibly be delivered? 00:42:22.639 --> 00:42:24.159 Sometimes it's tough. 00:42:24.400 --> 00:42:25.840 We have all been there. 00:42:27.360 --> 00:42:28.960 Look at these circumstances. 00:42:29.199 --> 00:42:32.239 Could you possibly be delivered? 00:42:33.840 --> 00:42:38.159 You must decide who knows more, myself or the Lord. 00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:49.199 These words here that are used, I am the Lord, I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 00:42:51.599 --> 00:42:53.679 These are all causal verbs. 00:42:54.559 --> 00:43:05.599 Bring you out is the very word that he used to describe what Pharaoh will do to bring out the Israelites. 00:43:07.679 --> 00:43:10.239 I will deliver you from slavery to them. 00:43:10.400 --> 00:43:13.119 This is the word that we translate as save. 00:43:14.400 --> 00:43:16.000 I will save you. 00:43:17.360 --> 00:43:24.559 Then he says, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 00:43:25.119 --> 00:43:27.119 Our church is called redemption. 00:43:27.840 --> 00:43:32.079 This has a lot of connotations, but redeem, we do, I think we often don't really understand. 00:43:32.159 --> 00:43:35.039 When I hear redeem, I think like an iTunes gift card. 00:43:38.320 --> 00:43:42.400 But this is a personal term, especially for the Hebrew people. 00:43:43.280 --> 00:43:59.519 When you found yourself unable to provide for yourself, then a responsibility would flow to your closest kinsmen, and they would have the opportunity to rescue you from slavery. 00:44:01.280 --> 00:44:05.599 At cost to them, but for your benefit. 00:44:06.079 --> 00:44:10.639 And God is saying, I am like your closest family member. 00:44:12.320 --> 00:44:16.239 And you are in a place where you cannot save yourself. 00:44:18.880 --> 00:44:26.480 I have committed myself to you in such a way where I will take responsibility for your salvation. 00:44:27.280 --> 00:44:30.239 You will be rescued by me. 00:44:31.360 --> 00:44:41.360 And then at the center of this royal decree, he lays out in the plainest terms yet what his covenant promises mean. 00:44:42.320 --> 00:44:47.840 In verse seven, I will take you to be my people. 00:44:49.679 --> 00:44:53.199 And I will be your God. 00:44:55.360 --> 00:44:56.639 What will this result in? 00:44:56.880 --> 00:45:00.320 I will take you, you will be my people. 00:45:01.760 --> 00:45:04.960 I will be your God. 00:45:07.599 --> 00:45:11.920 And you shall know that I am the Lord your God. 00:45:12.079 --> 00:45:16.639 Gosh, that certainty that you're after, you'll know it. 00:45:16.960 --> 00:45:18.239 But will you know? 00:45:18.880 --> 00:45:20.559 God is the Lord. 00:45:21.440 --> 00:45:23.679 He is my God. 00:45:24.400 --> 00:45:25.679 The Lord of me. 00:45:26.000 --> 00:45:27.519 The God of me. 00:45:29.599 --> 00:45:36.480 You shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 00:45:36.800 --> 00:45:44.000 This people will be able to know our God saved us from this slavery. 00:45:44.480 --> 00:45:54.559 Our God is the one who, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, freed us from this captivity from which we could never have freed ourselves. 00:45:58.960 --> 00:46:13.039 Now, this is the center of our hope that our God would say to us, You are my people. 00:46:15.039 --> 00:46:17.679 I'm taking responsibility for you. 00:46:18.320 --> 00:46:20.000 You will call me your Lord. 00:46:20.159 --> 00:46:21.679 You will be my people. 00:46:24.960 --> 00:46:30.400 But immediately the Israelites and Moses are unable to receive this. 00:46:32.719 --> 00:46:41.840 In Exodus 6, verse 9, it says, Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. 00:46:42.719 --> 00:46:46.880 They were unable to receive this great promise of the Lord. 00:46:48.719 --> 00:47:12.559 Their broken spirit, their harsh slavery, had crushed them in such a way where even when these great promises are held out, they consider those are nothing, those are insufficient to swallow up the pain and difficulty that we are experiencing. 00:47:14.719 --> 00:47:34.639 The best voicing of the problem of evil, like the best explanation of it, or the best argument for the problem of evil for God not existing, because evil exists in the world, is not by the philosophers. 00:47:35.440 --> 00:47:36.559 It's by the novelists. 00:47:36.719 --> 00:47:39.360 The artists tend to get there first. 00:47:39.519 --> 00:47:43.440 And it's Dostoevsky in The Brothers Kramazov. 00:47:43.840 --> 00:47:46.079